James 5:16 “Confess your sins to one another”
Over the last few days, I’ve been thinking and writing about various facets that can be seen from multiple perspectives on the verse above from James 5. Today, my attention is focused on the word “your.” It is so natural for us to talk about the sins of other people. We are experts at seeing the speck in our brothers’ or sisters’ eyes while being completely oblivious to the log in our own. Don’t you agree? And so, we are prone to gossip. It’s such a delicious pastime. We can be so critical, so self-righteous, such great experts on how others should live and how they are falling short of it. But to do what God tells us in regard to our own sin can be a very hard thing.
You see, the Lord tells us that if we want to confess anyone’s sin, it should, first and foremost, be our own. But we must be commanded to do such a thing because it goes so against our natural grain. One of the ways the Lord has chosen to help us along these lines is with the sober direction concerning the communion ritual. Listen the God’s Word from 1 Corinthians 11:27-32: “Whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty concerning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a person examine himself, then, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment on himself. That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died. But if we judged ourselves truly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged by the Lord, we are disciplined so that we may not be condemned along with the world.”
So, how often do we do this? Or do we come to the communion service without any such thought? Well, to do so is unwise, as this passage makes exceedingly obvious. It’s a command to consider the log in our own eye first. It’s a good practice for us to engage in. More than that, it’s God’s holy will.
May God help us to be those who confess our own sins to one another, rather than the sins of someone else. It’s not something that comes naturally do us. Rather, it’s the supernatural work of God.
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